I shook my head. “No, I’m just telling you that it’s important to me but…so are you.”
She softened at my words. “I’ll be able to deal. I won’t go out and shag every single man that points his penis in my direction while you’re gone.”
“Shag?” I laughed. “Who says that?”
“Me!” She narrowed her eyes.
“And you just said you’ll wait…is that what I heard?” I asked.
She softened. “I’ll wait…as long as you give me a good enough reason. You have to do a lot of convincing in between today and when you leave next week. I need to have a lot of memories to remember why I’m waiting while you’re gone.”
Chapter 8
Eat food off of other people’s plates. Those are their calories. They don’t count.
-Life Hack
Pru
I couldn’t believe I’d said half of the things that I had.
Honestly, if I was going to do this, I needed to have the understanding that it could, and might very well, go bad.
I didn’t want it to go bad, though. I wanted it to go oh so good.
Though I hadn’t known Hoax long, I realized rather quickly that he was beginning to mean quite a bit to me.
When he kissed me on my porch step last night, I’d decided that I really was going to give this a try.
Military men weren’t all bad, and Hoax was proof.
But, it scared me that he was going away for an unknown amount of time.
He hadn’t corrected me when I’d guessed he’d be gone for six months.
I’d been curious, of course, about what exactly he did in the Army, and when I asked him he diverted the topic.
Which was why I found myself standing in my dad’s garage bay watching him work as I contemplated what I was going to ask him and how.
“Would you just get over here already?” my father questioned.
My lips twitched. “Yeah.”
Then I moved to the car he was working on and leaned my hip against the front fender as I watched him bend nearly in half to reach a bolt that was inside the hood.
The motor was missing, and he looked like he was in the process of rebuilding it based on the scattered contents on the massive table behind him.
His wrench slipped, and he cursed.
“Here, reach in here and tighten this bolt,” he ordered, handing me the wrench.
Having done this for him a thousand times before, I reached in the small space and did as he asked, handing it back to him moments later.
“I’ve been working on that goddamn bolt for five minutes now,” he grumbled.
I smiled.
“There are some things women are better at,” I teased.
He grunted out a ‘whatever’ and held his hand out for the wrench, which I promptly slapped back into his hand.
His hand closed around the tool and he placed it on the rolling tool chest next to his other side before resting both of his large hands on the frame of the car and looking at me expectantly.
“What?” I feigned innocence.
“Today’s your day off and you’re usually sleeping in, not hanging out with your dad.” He paused. “You could’ve brought donuts, you know.”
My lip twitched. “If I’d brought you donuts, Mom would’ve thrown a shit fit.”
He sighed. “It’s high cholesterol, not the end of the world. Seriously, it won’t hurt to have a donut every once in a while.”
“Your high cholesterol is a precursor to heart disease. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to deal with the consequences of a heart attack,” I promised him.
This was an old argument, but something that came up constantly.
He grunted. “I realize that. And I’m on meds now, so it should be a moot point, correct?”
Technically, yes.
But still…
“It’s not easy for anyone, Dad,” I pointed out. “Do you think Mom likes it any better than you do? She’s literally the absolute worst when she doesn’t get her sugar. You should see her at work lately. She’s awful. Everyone hates her, and me by association.”
Dad grunted. “Not everybody.”
I winced. “You heard about Kelley?”
“I hear a lot of things about Kelley.” He paused. “For instance, I heard from your mom, who heard it from Kelley when he called her into his office to light a fire under her ass about you, that you were caught making out in a hospital hallway with a certain man that you promised you wouldn’t be seeing more of.”
That promise had come from me to him when I told him he didn’t need to run a background check on him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
He shifted his weight to one hand, and then lifted his free hand up to rub some grease on my cheek.
“Lucky for you I went ahead and ran the background check,” he said.
My belly clenched. “Anything bad come up?”
What branch of military is he in, and what does he do? I wanted to yell.
“Other than a few petty thefts that Jack and Janie had to dig pretty goddamn deep for, no.” He paused. “Interesting news about his military background, though.”
My brows rose. “As in…”
“As in whatever he’s into, I can’t find anything on it.” He paused. “As in whatever he’s into, he needs to not have a background at all. He’s a ghost.”
I felt something inside my chest stall and start back up again. Probably my heart.
“I’m thinking Delta,” I said to him softly. “But he told Conleigh that he was in the Marines. I’m thinking that was him deflecting from his actual branch, though. The fewer people know about him, the better.”
“That, or a black ops organization that I don’t know about.” He paused. “Delta would make sense, though. You’re right on the deflecting. The less information people have on you, the better. Especially when knowing certain factors about a person makes it easier to find them. I can make a few calls.”
For some reason, that made my stomach clench with horror.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to put him in danger.”
He gave me a hurt look. “What do you take me as, a novice?”
I snorted. “No. I take you as someone that’s trying to protect your daughter, and you not really caring whether you fuck anything up for him.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m not a bull in a china shop. I know how to make my way around the red tape without putting any signs out that I was there, and what I was searching for. Janie could probably do some digging, too…”
I shook my head before he’d even finished the thought. “He’ll tell me when it’s time.”
Sighing, he stood up straight and reached for the dirty, grease-stained coffee cup that was sitting on the toolbox behind him. “Maybe. Maybe not. But, I will say this. I trust the guy.”
I snickered. “I trust the guy, too.”
He winked and took a sip of his drink. “You like him.”
I gnawed at my lip for a few seconds. “It’s scary, but I think that I do.”
“Scary because you think you could like him a whole lot more than you did all your other boy toys?” he teased.
Way more. So, so, so much more.
I shrugged. “Way more than I’m willing to admit. He’s going slow, but it also feels like I’m moving at warp speed. I’ve only known him for a very short time, but he’s insinuated himself right in the middle of my world, and I can’t stop thinking about him.”
That was the thing about my dad. I could talk to him about anything, and not worry about him freaking out.
If this had been my mom, it’d have been totally different. My dad was like a soft, gentle breeze that came off a lake on a windy day. My mother? She was like exponentially strengthened winds that rolled off the ocean during the middle of a hurricane.
If my mother knew how much I was into Hoax, then she’d be planning my wedding as well as naming her grandchildren. Hell, she’d already been leaning that way when I brought him to our family dinner.
My dad’s eyes went behind me, and I grinned at seeing Jack, the resident computer guy and one of my dad’s best friends, standing there on the phone, his forehead wrinkled as he listened to something that was being said.
She softened at my words. “I’ll be able to deal. I won’t go out and shag every single man that points his penis in my direction while you’re gone.”
“Shag?” I laughed. “Who says that?”
“Me!” She narrowed her eyes.
“And you just said you’ll wait…is that what I heard?” I asked.
She softened. “I’ll wait…as long as you give me a good enough reason. You have to do a lot of convincing in between today and when you leave next week. I need to have a lot of memories to remember why I’m waiting while you’re gone.”
Chapter 8
Eat food off of other people’s plates. Those are their calories. They don’t count.
-Life Hack
Pru
I couldn’t believe I’d said half of the things that I had.
Honestly, if I was going to do this, I needed to have the understanding that it could, and might very well, go bad.
I didn’t want it to go bad, though. I wanted it to go oh so good.
Though I hadn’t known Hoax long, I realized rather quickly that he was beginning to mean quite a bit to me.
When he kissed me on my porch step last night, I’d decided that I really was going to give this a try.
Military men weren’t all bad, and Hoax was proof.
But, it scared me that he was going away for an unknown amount of time.
He hadn’t corrected me when I’d guessed he’d be gone for six months.
I’d been curious, of course, about what exactly he did in the Army, and when I asked him he diverted the topic.
Which was why I found myself standing in my dad’s garage bay watching him work as I contemplated what I was going to ask him and how.
“Would you just get over here already?” my father questioned.
My lips twitched. “Yeah.”
Then I moved to the car he was working on and leaned my hip against the front fender as I watched him bend nearly in half to reach a bolt that was inside the hood.
The motor was missing, and he looked like he was in the process of rebuilding it based on the scattered contents on the massive table behind him.
His wrench slipped, and he cursed.
“Here, reach in here and tighten this bolt,” he ordered, handing me the wrench.
Having done this for him a thousand times before, I reached in the small space and did as he asked, handing it back to him moments later.
“I’ve been working on that goddamn bolt for five minutes now,” he grumbled.
I smiled.
“There are some things women are better at,” I teased.
He grunted out a ‘whatever’ and held his hand out for the wrench, which I promptly slapped back into his hand.
His hand closed around the tool and he placed it on the rolling tool chest next to his other side before resting both of his large hands on the frame of the car and looking at me expectantly.
“What?” I feigned innocence.
“Today’s your day off and you’re usually sleeping in, not hanging out with your dad.” He paused. “You could’ve brought donuts, you know.”
My lip twitched. “If I’d brought you donuts, Mom would’ve thrown a shit fit.”
He sighed. “It’s high cholesterol, not the end of the world. Seriously, it won’t hurt to have a donut every once in a while.”
“Your high cholesterol is a precursor to heart disease. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to deal with the consequences of a heart attack,” I promised him.
This was an old argument, but something that came up constantly.
He grunted. “I realize that. And I’m on meds now, so it should be a moot point, correct?”
Technically, yes.
But still…
“It’s not easy for anyone, Dad,” I pointed out. “Do you think Mom likes it any better than you do? She’s literally the absolute worst when she doesn’t get her sugar. You should see her at work lately. She’s awful. Everyone hates her, and me by association.”
Dad grunted. “Not everybody.”
I winced. “You heard about Kelley?”
“I hear a lot of things about Kelley.” He paused. “For instance, I heard from your mom, who heard it from Kelley when he called her into his office to light a fire under her ass about you, that you were caught making out in a hospital hallway with a certain man that you promised you wouldn’t be seeing more of.”
That promise had come from me to him when I told him he didn’t need to run a background check on him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
He shifted his weight to one hand, and then lifted his free hand up to rub some grease on my cheek.
“Lucky for you I went ahead and ran the background check,” he said.
My belly clenched. “Anything bad come up?”
What branch of military is he in, and what does he do? I wanted to yell.
“Other than a few petty thefts that Jack and Janie had to dig pretty goddamn deep for, no.” He paused. “Interesting news about his military background, though.”
My brows rose. “As in…”
“As in whatever he’s into, I can’t find anything on it.” He paused. “As in whatever he’s into, he needs to not have a background at all. He’s a ghost.”
I felt something inside my chest stall and start back up again. Probably my heart.
“I’m thinking Delta,” I said to him softly. “But he told Conleigh that he was in the Marines. I’m thinking that was him deflecting from his actual branch, though. The fewer people know about him, the better.”
“That, or a black ops organization that I don’t know about.” He paused. “Delta would make sense, though. You’re right on the deflecting. The less information people have on you, the better. Especially when knowing certain factors about a person makes it easier to find them. I can make a few calls.”
For some reason, that made my stomach clench with horror.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to put him in danger.”
He gave me a hurt look. “What do you take me as, a novice?”
I snorted. “No. I take you as someone that’s trying to protect your daughter, and you not really caring whether you fuck anything up for him.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m not a bull in a china shop. I know how to make my way around the red tape without putting any signs out that I was there, and what I was searching for. Janie could probably do some digging, too…”
I shook my head before he’d even finished the thought. “He’ll tell me when it’s time.”
Sighing, he stood up straight and reached for the dirty, grease-stained coffee cup that was sitting on the toolbox behind him. “Maybe. Maybe not. But, I will say this. I trust the guy.”
I snickered. “I trust the guy, too.”
He winked and took a sip of his drink. “You like him.”
I gnawed at my lip for a few seconds. “It’s scary, but I think that I do.”
“Scary because you think you could like him a whole lot more than you did all your other boy toys?” he teased.
Way more. So, so, so much more.
I shrugged. “Way more than I’m willing to admit. He’s going slow, but it also feels like I’m moving at warp speed. I’ve only known him for a very short time, but he’s insinuated himself right in the middle of my world, and I can’t stop thinking about him.”
That was the thing about my dad. I could talk to him about anything, and not worry about him freaking out.
If this had been my mom, it’d have been totally different. My dad was like a soft, gentle breeze that came off a lake on a windy day. My mother? She was like exponentially strengthened winds that rolled off the ocean during the middle of a hurricane.
If my mother knew how much I was into Hoax, then she’d be planning my wedding as well as naming her grandchildren. Hell, she’d already been leaning that way when I brought him to our family dinner.
My dad’s eyes went behind me, and I grinned at seeing Jack, the resident computer guy and one of my dad’s best friends, standing there on the phone, his forehead wrinkled as he listened to something that was being said.
